Oil-shale retort



Oct. 26 1926. 1,604,253

0. E. BARNHART OIL SHALE RETORT Filed Feb. 14, 1925 2 Sheets-$heet 1 INVENTOR 66 cf @WLL 30-;Cf, ATTORNEYS.

' shale; means for subjecting the shale in Patented Oct. 26, 1926.

UNITED STATES PATENT oraics.

- OIL-emu an'roa'r.

Application filed February 14, 1825. Serial No. 2,138.

My invention relates to the treatment of shales. It consists in a novel sectional retort comprising means for advancing the shale through a definite course divided succcssively into regions of treatment non-communicating except to the passage of the each region to controllable distilling tem-' perature differing in degree according to the nature of the vapor to be driven off; and means for separately delivering the -vapor from each region.

In the accompanying drawings 1 illustrate a form of the apparatus or retort with certain modifications, though it is to be understood that other modifications and changes, such, for example as concerns the nature of the heating medium, and its manner of application both as to place and control, may be made without departing from the spirit of my invention as defined by the claim herein.-

In the drawings- Fig. 1 is a vertical section of the retort. Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1. 0

Figs. 3 and 4 are vertical sectlonal details of one of the treating chambers, respectively showing two modified forms of material advancing mechanism.

In the drawings, the reference numeral 1 designates, the heat insulating covering of the retort. The retort is divided, horizontally, into a plurality of gas tight sections, there being three such sections shown in Figs. 1 and2, and indicated respectively by the letters A, B and C. Each section comprises one or more material treating chambers 2, separated and surrounded either wholly or partially by heating chambers or passages 3. In Figs. 1 and 2, I have shown two treating chambers 2 in each section, positioned one above the other, and communicating with each other by a passage 4 at one end.

Each treating chamber 2 is provided with suitable means for agitating and advancing the material through it from end to end, such means being shown in Figs. 1 and 2 as a plurality of laterally adjacent helical conveyers 5. Other conveyers may, however,

be used, such for example, as drag chains,

one of which is shown at 6 in Fig. 3, or reciprocating rakes, as indicated at 7 in Fig. 4.

The shale or material to be treated is fed from a hopper 8 at the top of the retort into the uppermost treating chamber 2 of the section A, successively transferred from each chamber to the next lower chamber, and is finally discharged from the lowermost chamber of each section, by gas-controlling valves 9, Fig. 1, which may be of any suitable construction, but are here shown as rotary valves of a well known type. The several sections are thus separated by said valves 9,

and are non-communicating except to the a connected, and operated at the same speed. For this purpose said conveyers are mounti ed upon shafts 11, and these shafts carry spur gears indicated at 12 in Fig. 1, by which the several adjacent conveyers of each chamber 2 are interconnected; and one shaft of each chamber carries a bevel gear 13, all said bevel gears being driven, in the proper directions, by a vertical shaft 14. The transfer valves 9 are also to be driven in timed relation to the movements of the conveyers 5, by any suitable mechanism not shown, so that the material is advanced con tinuously and at a constant rate, from the feed hopper 8 through the successive treating chambers 2, and finally discharged through a chute 15 on to a suitable discharge conveyer indicated at 16.

The treating chambers 2 and the heating chambers 3 are best constructed as units, as shown, each complete within itself, so that the entire retort can be built up by assembling the desired number of treating chambers 2 and the intervening heating chambers 3.

The heating chambers 3 lying between the adjacent sections of the retort, are formed with heat insulating walls 17 and with assages through which the treating cham ers communicate, and said heating chambersalso carry the transfer valves 9 which are located in and control said passages. The number of treating chambers used to make u each section will depend upon the length 0? time necessary for the treatment of the material in that particular section. In the particular retort shown in Figs. 1 and 2, each section comprises two treating chambers, and, therefore, the time or duration of treatment is the same in all sections. But by increasing the number of chambers 2 in any one section, the duration of treatment in that section will be correspondingly increased, without aifecting the duration of treatment in the other sections.

It is to be noted that, by the unit form of construction thus described, the building of a retort is reduced to its simplest terms, being merely a matter of assembling the requisite number of previously formed treatin chambers, heating chambers and transfer va ves. Thus the number and also the size of the sections A, B and C may be accommodated to the necessities of the particular material to be treated, and may be changed, without an undue expenditure of labor, when material of difierent composition is encoun tered. All the transfer valves, and all the mechanisms of the several material chambers being thus driven from the same source of power, there will be maintained a constant, equal ratio between the amount of material fed by the valves and the amount of material handled by the mechanisms through the entire retort, thus eliminating the possibility of clogging or accumulation of material, in any part of the retort. The advancing mechanisms maybe run at any desired, reasonable speed, to give the necessary retorting time for the particular material being handled. This speed, of course, will govern the capacity of the retort, but the retorting time for any individual section may be regulated by the number of units of advancing mechanism employed in that section. That is, assume that it be desired to build a retort for a certain number of tons through-put per 24 hours, and it has been found by experience that a certain speed is the most desirable, from a mechanical viewpoint, at which to run the mechanism, and that the material chamber is a certain length from inlet valve to outlet valve. The laboratory analysis of the material to be retorted indicates that it is desirable to separate the gases or va ors into a certain number of classes, and t at it requires a certain temperature, and a'certain time to drive off each gas or vapor.

It will be quite simple to calculate the weight of material per minute that the mechanism will handle at the required speed, and the time required to move the material across the given length of the material chamber. Then it isonly necessary to assemble that section of the retort to contain the required number of units of mechanism to give the required total amount of time to obtain the result desired. Each individual section may be so assembled to meet its own requirements without regard to any other section. That is, each individual section may be assembled to give the required ratio of time and temperature to obtain the results desired without interfering with either the speed or capacity of the retort as a whole. Furthermore, if after installation of the retort, the nature of the material changes, or it be desired to change the time to temperature ratio, for any reason, in any or all sections, it will only be necessary to add to, or take away from the sections affected the required number of units of mechanism, which can be done with a minimum of expense and time.

Any suitable heating medium and means may be employed for separately controllably heating the several sections of the retort. For example, I have here shown a fire-box 18, equipped with suitable burners 19, below the lowermost" section C, from which the hot gases are carried upward through fiues 20, Fig. 2, formed in the opposite side walls of the retort. Said fiues communicate, through ports 21, with the heating chambers 3, and by means of suitably disposed dampers 22, the hot gases may either be caused to circulate through the heating chambers 3 of any given section, or may be by-passed, wholly or in part, to the next section, or directly to the stacks 23.

I claim A retort for treating shales comprisin a tier assembly of separate treating cham er units, and intervening separate heating units, each of said heating units having a passage through which th'' treating chamber units successively communicate for the movement of the shale through the'retort; a heat-insulating wall formed in selected heating units for dividing the retort into heat-separated treating sections; gas-controlling valves carried by said selected heating units in their shale passages; means within each treating chamber unit for advancing the shale; means for supplying a heating medium to said heating units; and

CLARENCE E. BARNHART. 

